Copy That Two-Niner

As we started reading Going After Cacciato, I found a very interesting subject matter in the opening pages of the book. On page 13, the lieutenant radioed that they were in pursuit of the enemy. When the voice on the other end replied he asked if they needed any gunship or artillery support. The lieutenant said it was not necessary, but the man on the radio continued to push the lieutenant into allowing them to give them supporting fire. He said, "We got a real bargain going on arty this week- two for the price of one no strings and a warranty to boot. First-class ordnance, real sweet stuff. See, we got this terrific batch of 155 in, a real shitload of it, so we got to go heavy on volume. Keeps the prices down."
"Negative"
"Well, jeez." The radio-voice paused."Okay, Papa Two-Niner. Tell you what, I like the sound of your voice. A swell voice, really lovely. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you a dozen nice illum, how's that? Can you beat it? Find a place in town that beats it and we give you a dozen more, no charge. Real boomers with genuine sparkles mixed in. A closeout sale, one time only."
"Negative. Negative, negative, negative."
"You're missing out on some fine shit, Two-Niner."
"Negative, you monster."
"No offense"
"Negative."
"As you will, then." The radio-voice buzzed. "Happy hunting."
"Mercy," the lieutenant said into a blaze of static.

Now after I read this I had to stop reading for a second and think about what just occurred. Tim O'Brien put a soldier in the shoes of a salesmen. The man on the other end of the radio tried to convince the lieutenant to allow them to bomb something because they were getting some artillery two for the price of one. This blew my mind. Now this might have never happened, but it would not surprise me if it did. I imagine that if you were not directly in the line of fire, Vietnam was a very boring war. I can understand that this man was bored and he was trying to give himself something to do by swaying the lieutenant to order in a bombing. But still the idea that a person is so bored that he is running the risk of killing innocent people just to give him something to do. The only sane person over the radio was the lieutenant, we refereed to the other man as a monster. The lieutenant is an older man, he has probably seen and been around war and death and understands that war is horrific. It is one thing for say a used car salesman to pressure you into buying a car, but for someone to pressure you into allowing them to possible kill innocent people then you know you are in the wrong situation. I just thought that this conversation along with Slaughter House-Five give us the readers another perspective on the US during times of war.